Acknowledgements
This book has been written for the Austrian Science Fund Project V356-G19 “Oxford Theology at the University of Vienna, 1385–ca. 1420” conducted between 2014 and 2018 at the Austrian Institute for Historical Research of the University of Vienna. Most of my discoveries were possible only thanks to the knowledge preserved and taught at the Institute, especially to the critical approach to catalogues and manuscripts I learnt there. I thank the then-Institute Director, Thomas Winkelbauer for institutional support, Martin Scheutz and Margareth Lanzinger for their help sine qua non, and Gerhard Lindauer for books. I remain indebted to Thomas Prügl from the Institute of Theology at Vienna for his initial, yet decisive impulse, which lead me to open up commentaries on the Bible. My warmest thanks go the Editorial Board of Brill’s series “Commentaria” for embracing my enterprise, Marcella Mulder for assistance, and Claudia Rapp and the Foundation DDr. Franz-Josef Mayer-Gunthof of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for their support of the publication.
Between 2014 and 2018, I visited many libraries in Austria, at Vienna and in the countryside, and worked through more than 10,000 folios at the Austrian National Library. My investigation in this book relies on the latter. For it is the Austrian National Library that includes the collections of the Collegium ducale, the University of Vienna’s college, to which Henry of Langenstein, Henry Totting of Oyta, and Lambert of Geldern donated their biblical commentaries, immense pieces of the intellectual tradition of Europe—not just eastern or western Europe, but Europe as a whole. I have utterly enjoyed the power of human thought and the logic of intellectual community I sensed in this tradition. If it is ever possible to increase my beliefs in this regard, even more than before, I believe in rationality, argumentation, and freedom of choice, all things the medieval university institutionalized, debated, and generalized in society.
My gratefulness to Tamás Visi stands out. Tamás once taught me and others Hebrew at Budapest in challenging conditions, for free; and recently, he suggested to me to look further into Moshe Taku. Both moments proved most fruitful for this book. I would also like to express my gratitude to colleagues who have shared their knowledge of Jewish culture with me: Ursula Ragacs, Klaus Davidowicz, David I. Shyovicz, Dana Eichhorst, and my friend at Berlin, Annett Martini. I thank Tristan Sharp, Simona Vucu, Martin Roland, Michael Pölzl, and Klára Harrer for discussions at Toronto and Vienna, Harald Berger for his brilliant suggestions and encouragements, and Martin Dekarli for help and support over the years. I thank the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies for a splendid year. I remain indebted to Luke DeWeese, Stephen Pow, and Joshua Hey for having helped me to write in English. Finally, it is with a quiet gladness that I notice: I still have to thank, and for so much, György Geréby.
I could not have finished this book without the support of Christine Glaßner and my colleagues at the Department of Codicology and Palaeography of the Institute for Medieval Research at Vienna.
I could not have written this book without the friendship of Christoph Egger.